A piece of junk post through the door claims that new building regulations require fitting of water softeners where water hardness exceeds 200ppm (which looks to be over half of England on the map included). That was a new one on me...
I was deeply suspicious. So I found this:
"The UKWTA has demonstrated how lime-scale build-up has a major impact on reducing the efficiency of domestic water heating appliances ? so much so that the government changed the UK Building Regulations (the Domestic Heating Compliance Guide - published May 2006) to require treatment of the feed water to water heaters in hard water areas to inhibit lime-scale formation."
Obviously not a wholly disinterested source. So I sought the mentioned document.
When you look at the "Domestic Heating Compliance Guide" [1], the *only* mention of water softening (so far as I could find) was in Table 24 (on page 52/PDF page 53). This applies specifically community heating and the need for some means of ensuring the life of the system by avoiding corrosion. One of the options mentioned is water softening.
[1] Found at
Bit like this "three portions of fibre a day" thing. Wouldn't be anything to do with breakfast cereal manufacturers would it?
The ASA is a complete waste of space IMO.
With no distinction between soluble and insoluble fibre...
But I don't think Kelloggs care about water softeners...
Me too; and as we are still contemplating a new boiler I also looked. But it looks as if it is (sort of) true.
I found this book (?)
Same statement is repeated in
ditto.
But isn't there a bit more in the BR_PDF_PTL_DOMHEAT.pdf? Eg Table 1 *does* include (row d para d) that "where the mains water hardness exceeds 200ppm provision should be made to treat the feed water to water heaters and the hot water circuit of combination boilers to reduce the rate of accumulation of lime scale?. And that's domestic GFCH.
I have no idea whether this is justified. But with sealed systems needing so little water added I do wonder if it is another bit of over-regulation which has been slipped through - possibly as a result self of another of the then Deputy Prime Minister's lot being captured by a lobby-group?
In any event, help please - I'm confused.
-- Robin
You are right. I had this strange idea that a requirement to fit a softener would at least contain the word soft~ - which is what I searched for.
In my area the council usually says there are something like 160,000 souls. Assume four per dwelling (very rough guess) so that would be
40,000 properties which will, in due course, require 40,000 water treament mechanisms. To be supplied, fitted, fed with salt, maintained and, eventually, disposed of (then replaced...). So much more sensible than the water company supplying softer water by, for example, some central treatment.Seems that Thames Valley is rated at around 300-350 ppm.
Odd, when we got quotes for a new boiler, no mention of this was made any of the quoters. (That project is still on hold.)
But central treatment not very politic if it means increasing water charges, and even less if it also increases the level of sodium in the water. And to be fair I see no need to soften our drinking water.
And in any event I think we are meant to be in favour of DIY here;)
Note there is *no* requirement for softening - only scale inhibiting. Any phosphate dosing system will do that at much lower cost. (and no doubt the various interested groups will wangle their electronic / magnetic / magic rock placebos in there as well
True (as ever). And one or two of the boilers I've looked at do have an option to fit just such a system.
What surprised me was that the stuff I've looked at for (among others) Worcester and Vaillant boilers still just say in both user and technical literature (to take one example): "The temperature in the domestic hot water heat exchanger is limited by the boiler control system and it is not necessary to install a scale reducer on the cold mains to the boiler. However, in areas that get exceptionally hard water, a scale reducer may be fitted to prevent scale formation in the hot water system pipes."
I find that hard to reconcile with the scale of water supplies at 200+ ppm according to
I had an old Main Medina multi-point water heater when I moved in to a house many years ago. I had to take the heat exchanger out of that and clean it about every 2 years. The multi-point was replaced in 2000 and the new model claims teflon coating on the inside of the heat exchanger pipework to prevent scale. It seems to work -- I've never had to descale it.
On Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:00:53 GMT, a particular chimpanzee, "neverwas" randomly hit the keyboard and produced:
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I must admit, I wasn't aware of this, but then I work in an area where all that comes out of our taps is lovely, soft mountain dew.
The legal requirement is, "Reasonable provision shall be made for the conservation of fuel and power in buildings by...limiting heat gains and losses...from pipes, ducts and vessels used for space heating...and hot water services".
Guidance on how to do this is given in Approved Document L1B (Conservation of Fuel and Power in Existing Dwellings). This references the Domestic Heating Guide, which as you've pointed out, does contain that paragraph above. It doesn't say that a water softener (or other form of treatment) must be provided to the closed loop part of a boiler but to the 'feed water' to a water heater and the 'hot water circuit of a combination boiler', in other words, the stuff that eventually comes out of the taps.
If one does not follow this guidance, one has to demonstrate that any alternative chosen gives "reasonable provision" to limit the losses due to furring-up of pipes. If electro-magnets, Teflon pipes or sacrificing chickens can be shown to work, then they can be used as an alternative.
Under Schedule 2A of the Regulations, there are a number of 'competent persons' schemes, which include the installation of hot water service systems by CORGI, HETAS, NICEIC et al.
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